"Obscure"? "Rarely used"? I use them all the time! As a heavy commandline user, those two things is a must.
"The basic programming functionality is much more important."
No, usability is much more important. If I want powerful programming functionality, I will use Perl or whatever, which is available today. A shell is all about invoking external commands quickly, efficiently, and being able to automate them. If you can't do that easily, then it's not a good shell language.
You seem to be confusing "shell" with "scripting".
Windows will never have a "good" commandline until it has a tabbed terminal emulator. Alt+Tabbing through tons of DOS boxes is a huge pain. Windows doesn't even support magnetic window snapping like most Linux window managers do.
By that logic, Linux desktop will never (in the most extreme sense of the word) be ready for the desktop, because it's always different from Windows. If consumers don't want to learn anything new, then you can never win unless you are Microsoft.
I use scons and it definitely has limitations compared to autoconf. For example, it's hard and cumbersome to write a decent target similar to 'make dist', if you use sub-SConscripts. Writing an install target can also be a pain. And the startup time is high.
It's not too bad for unless I'm writing software that must also be portable to Windows, I'll stick to autoconf.
"There's another alternative - buy a commercial package that does what you need - and given MS' profits for teh last qtr I'd say a lot of people are chosing that alternative."
Then why don't you just go ahead and buy it instead of complaining about my free work? That is the whole point! Instead of putting money where your mouth is, you people keep complaining about volunteer work.
"since most people neither care nor consider themselves lucky that someone bothered to develop OSS software - they just want stuff that works."
Good for them, but those people are not the problem. The people who keep complaining about OSS instead of buying whatever commercial software they need, are the problem.
If I want everybody to use my software, then I'd make it userfriendly. But if I write a piece of software for fun for free, then what gives you the right to keep complaining about it all day all night?
Yes. 1. I want companies to write software for Linux. I hate rebooting to Windows just so I can play games. And for this, Linux needs market share. 2. It's extremely annoying when all sorts of people flame you down just because you are not using the #1 operating system. Any complaints about a website or whatever not working on Linux is immediately dismissed as "zealot whining" or something along the lines of that.
"The benefits of Python over Perl are large enough to make the install of python a requirement, and a criterion of choosing a service provider. At least if your programs are going to be larger than 200 lines or so."
If you're such a bad developer that you can't possibly write good, clean and maintainable code in Perl, then Python won't help you much.
Yes, me. I'm the maintainer of a project which has about 30.000 lines of Perl code. And yes, the project is maintainable and the code is very much readable. The project is still under active development.
Furthermore, Perl has a bigger chance than Python of being installed on Linux distributions by default. This alone is a good reason to choose Perl over Python. Don't get me started about Ruby.
Ah yes I agree. Later Delphi versions tend to be buggier than past versions (I get EAccessViolations in the IDE once in a while). There's also an RLE bitmap loading bug in TBitmap, which occured in Delphi 5 but still hasn't been fixed in Delphi 6.:( As a result, I was forced to use Win32 API's LoadImage() to work around the problem.
The problem with your analogy is that software can be copied without affecting the source. Your analogy would be more like this:
"I go to a convenience store and use my Star Trek Replication Device to copy a can of Diet Coke, without taking away the existing Diet Coke. I like it so much that the next day, I go out and buy a case. I tell my friend that I like Diet Coke, and he buys a case."
Microsoft's bad reputation is entirely their own fault, so it's no surprise that people flame MS. And if people *still* like Firefox dispite some security leaks, then that should say a lot about Firefox's quality.
Motif apps? Are you kidding? There are as many Motif apps on Linux as FLTK apps on Windows. And don't get me started on the tons of different custom controls in Windows apps...
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"Obscure"? "Rarely used"? I use them all the time! As a heavy commandline user, those two things is a must.
"The basic programming functionality is much more important."
No, usability is much more important. If I want powerful programming functionality, I will use Perl or whatever, which is available today. A shell is all about invoking external commands quickly, efficiently, and being able to automate them. If you can't do that easily, then it's not a good shell language.
You seem to be confusing "shell" with "scripting".
Windows will never have a "good" commandline until it has a tabbed terminal emulator. Alt+Tabbing through tons of DOS boxes is a huge pain. Windows doesn't even support magnetic window snapping like most Linux window managers do.
By that logic, Linux desktop will never (in the most extreme sense of the word) be ready for the desktop, because it's always different from Windows. If consumers don't want to learn anything new, then you can never win unless you are Microsoft.
I use scons and it definitely has limitations compared to autoconf. For example, it's hard and cumbersome to write a decent target similar to 'make dist', if you use sub-SConscripts. Writing an install target can also be a pain. And the startup time is high.
It's not too bad for unless I'm writing software that must also be portable to Windows, I'll stick to autoconf.
"There's another alternative - buy a commercial package that does what you need - and given MS' profits for teh last qtr I'd say a lot of people are chosing that alternative."
Then why don't you just go ahead and buy it instead of complaining about my free work? That is the whole point! Instead of putting money where your mouth is, you people keep complaining about volunteer work.
"since most people neither care nor consider themselves lucky that someone bothered to develop OSS software - they just want stuff that works."
Good for them, but those people are not the problem. The people who keep complaining about OSS instead of buying whatever commercial software they need, are the problem.
If I want everybody to use my software, then I'd make it userfriendly. But if I write a piece of software for fun for free, then what gives you the right to keep complaining about it all day all night?
"what's so painful about opening up your favorite package manager and taking 30 seconds to install it?"
It's not about me, it's about my users. Try telling your grandma to install "Ruby".
Yes.
1. I want companies to write software for Linux. I hate rebooting to Windows just so I can play games. And for this, Linux needs market share.
2. It's extremely annoying when all sorts of people flame you down just because you are not using the #1 operating system. Any complaints about a website or whatever not working on Linux is immediately dismissed as "zealot whining" or something along the lines of that.
And which Linux distribution has Ruby installed by default? Not mine.
"The benefits of Python over Perl are large enough to make the install of python a requirement, and a criterion of choosing a service provider. At least if your programs are going to be larger than 200 lines or so."
If you're such a bad developer that you can't possibly write good, clean and maintainable code in Perl, then Python won't help you much.
Yes, me. I'm the maintainer of a project which has about 30.000 lines of Perl code. And yes, the project is maintainable and the code is very much readable. The project is still under active development.
Furthermore, Perl has a bigger chance than Python of being installed on Linux distributions by default. This alone is a good reason to choose Perl over Python. Don't get me started about Ruby.
"Well, for starters you don't have to worry about different sites knowing your username and password on other sites."
Does that mean that with single signon, the password is stored by a third party, and the website itself doesn't know your password?
Can anyone tell me what the single signon hype is all about? How is single signon any different than using the same password for multiple websites?
Ah yes I agree. Later Delphi versions tend to be buggier than past versions (I get EAccessViolations in the IDE once in a while). There's also an RLE bitmap loading bug in TBitmap, which occured in Delphi 5 but still hasn't been fixed in Delphi 6. :( As a result, I was forced to use Win32 API's LoadImage() to work around the problem.
It would not be BSD. BSD requires you to give credit to the authors. With no copyright, you can claim others' work as your own.
The problem with your analogy is that software can be copied without affecting the source. Your analogy would be more like this:
"I go to a convenience store and use my Star Trek Replication Device to copy a can of Diet Coke, without taking away the existing Diet Coke. I like it so much that the next day, I go out and buy a case. I tell my friend that I like Diet Coke, and he buys a case."
So why doesn't the Mac have more market share than Windows?
Do you really believe most teenagers have even heard of 1984?
How ironic. Internet Explorer doesn't meet those requirements (no tabbed browsing, ActiveX, standards compliance) yet everybody still uses it. :/
It won't help if they installed key loggers in the keyboard itself.
No, he's saying that people like you are talking quotes out of context just to blindly praise Apple, while refusing to see the truth.
Microsoft's bad reputation is entirely their own fault, so it's no surprise that people flame MS.
And if people *still* like Firefox dispite some security leaks, then that should say a lot about Firefox's quality.
Motif apps? Are you kidding? There are as many Motif apps on Linux as FLTK apps on Windows. And don't get me started on the tons of different custom controls in Windows apps...
zsnes is an emulator. wine isn't.
Many people on the photo actually have wives and girlfriends, they're just not on the photo.
Go nuts!
OK, then you should move to a country where people can kill you for no reason, because that country is more free, right?